Waiter, there's a scorpion in my soup!0:11
Are insects the food of the future?0:18
You're at a restaurant and there's a fantastic aroma coming from the kitchen.0:27
"I think I'll have the dish of the day," you tell the waiter.0:32
Then out comes a huge platter of fried tarantulas and a plate of grasshopper tacos.0:36
"You're going to enjoy that," says the waiter.0:43
Now, maybe this makes your stomach churn, but some food scientists are hoping that insects will become a common sight at our dinner tables in the future.0:48
The idea of eating insects, known as entomophagy, certainly isn't new or unusual.0:59
Ancient Roman and Greek aristocrats, for instance, loved to dine on beetle larvae and locusts.1:07
What's more, insects are eaten today in four-fifths of countries around the world.1:15
In Ghana, bread is made from winged termites,, and in China, cooked baby bees are a delicacy.1:21
In Thailand, the night markets are an insect eater's dream, with deep-fried locusts, giant water bugs, and marinated silkworms some of the most popular snacks.1:29
Some cinemagoers in South America even pop roasted ants into their mouths instead of popcorn.1:42
The fact is, the food we eat is largely influenced by culture.1:50
At a certain point, people in Western countries began to see insects as pests that destroy crops, rather than as a food source.1:55
Now bugs are mostly only eaten to shock TV audiences.2:05
Many Westerners wouldn't hesitate to order shrimp and lobster in a fancy restaurant, yet these are arthropods, just like insects.2:10
Some even describe them as the bugs of the ocean.2:20
You may be surprised to learn that we all already eat insects.2:25
Amazingly, we eat half a kilo of insects each year, as insect contamination is often unavoidable when manufacturing foods.2:29
By law, chocolate can have up to 60 insect parts in it per 100 grams, for instance.2:40
You'll probably think twice now before tucking into your next bar of chocolate.2:47
But don't insects taste terrible?2:53
Well, apparently not.2:55
Fans of the witchetty grub, considered to be the fillet steak of the bug world, say that it tastes like a tasty cheese omelette rolled in dough.2:58
Fried crickets taste just like nuts, and barbecued grasshoppers like roasted peppers.3:08
Just don't look at your plate first.3:15
Not only can insects taste agreeable, but they are plentiful too.3:18
So far, we know that 1,400 are edible, but there are thousands more that we haven't tried.3:23
"Insects are such an abundant food source that it seems crazy not to use them," says one head chef.3:31
"We've just got to get over our fear of eating them."3:38
The EU agrees, and is soon going to launch a project to promote insect eating.3:42
They see it as an environmentally friendly solution to the problem of feeding the world.3:48
Insect farming takes a fraction of the resources needed for producing meat.3:55
Insects are healthy too, full of vitamins and protein, and low in cholesterol.4:00
It seems that dishes such as scorpion soup will start appearing on our Western menus sooner than we think.4:07
Certainly, many scientists think that by 2020 insects will be available in our supermarkets.4:15
If this seems unlikely to you, remember that aubergines and sushi were once alien foods at the Western table.4:23
Insects, once seen as pests, might just become our knights in shining armor in the very near future.4:32
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